What is Consulting?
April 29, 2008
“Good Morning”
“Do you have a need for Contract Programmers?”
Here at LUCRUM, Chuck has done a great job at filtering our email solicitations. However, I still get the one above from some guy named Patrick Harris….it reminds me of how LUCRUM is positioned in the market as a consulting firm providing business and technology solutions.
There’s a real difference between “contract programmer” and “consultant.” The industry often mingles the definitions together and customers tend to negotiate for consulting services using “contract programmer” pricing.
LUCRUM has had a rich history of hiring IT professionals that thrive on “consulting” using their technology skills. With that statement, let’s ask ourselves “what is a consultant?” Consulting is bringing expertise of one’s experiences into a firm on a project or fee basis. One of the ironies of consulting is that the goal of the consultant must be to make him or herself obsolete.” All of us have been in the position of being frustrated (either as an internal or external consultant or even as a perm-placement worker) by management’s careful efforts to defeat any and all attempts on our part to transfer the knowledge we had to at least one (other) person in the organization. This puzzles me because I learned early on in my career that it is far more probable that a company will retain “intuitive knowledge” about their system/applications/data/whatever if more than one person has that knowledge.
To provide our technology expertise is simply not enough in today’s global economy. The disparity between India (and other Asian-based services) and the US will continue to have companies use “contract programmers” that are truly just “coders” and not consultants.
Why do I bring this up? It’s our livelihood! I also know that our mantra has been “85% social and 15% technical.” My ratio is skewed purposely to emphasize the requirement to “over-communicate” on every part of our daily assignment. The technology works; it doesn’t work if people are not communicating. As consultants, it’s up to us to take the lead responsibility with the customer on communications. That’s our largest challenge. You’ll see LUCRUM’s focus to grow our capabilities in this area with Customer Alignment Sessions, leveraging Whole Brain Organizational Development processes internally and with our customers, and a new larger emphasis on the consultant, and in developing unique professional skills. Jodie Heflin, as our Delivery Leader, has the proven track record of Customer-oriented 85/15 skills. It’s her goal to get all of our firm up to a higher level of capability; to “think” as a part of our customer’s business in addition to our technology capabilities.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Tuesday Model
April 29, 2008
Tuesday, not as bad as Monday, and not as good as Wednesday. Its a forgotten day to most people. If you have an average and dull life, then you could say that your life is a bunch of Tuesdays I guess. Is there any way that Tuesday could mean…a little more…here’s something that I use to get me through the Tuesdays of my life.
I have been at LÛCRUM now for about three weeks, and one of the first projects I have been asked to participate in is concerning customer loyalty. So I thought to myself, customer loyalty, how to get it, and obviously how to retain it, when it hit me….Tuesday!
What does Tuesday have to do with customer loyalty, and what is the Tuesday model, you ask? The Tuesday model is a little bit of advice that was given to me by my mentor in College. A successful venture capitalist, and entrepreneur, a man that I respect. Anyways, one day we were out at dinner and I was picking his brain about business, life, etc. when he told me this. “Andrew, all relationships, business or personal, are based on three criteria. Expectations, understanding and trust.” E.U.T or T.U.E the prefix of Tuesday as a way to remember it. “These are the building blocks of relationships” he explained. His logic was that, once expectations are not met, then understanding becomes clouded and thus, trust falls apart. Naturally he concluded “that trust is the backbone or all relationships.” I listened to my mentor and it made sense, moreover, this was a man that I respected and I could see he was great a forging strong ties in every aspect of his life and this was the secret ingredient behind his success.
Since that day I have implemented the Tuesday Model into everything relationship I in my life; family, friends, work and girlfriends. It helps you empathize, which fosters understanding and clarity. I have also amended the model itself. Trust, Understanding and Expectations is how it was originally conceived, but a sub note to expectations is communication. Only if communication is clear can expectations be derived and met. Of course this screws up the acronym but it’s worth it.
So now that I have acquainted you with my philosophy (something that I will do a lot if you let me), it is time to implement the Tuesday Model with my tasks here at LÛCRUM. Going along with the theme of Tuesday, you can find further “rants” if you so desire every Tuesday from here on out. If you agree with me great, if you have anything to add, I’m all ears, or perhaps you think I’m insane, either way, discourse is always welcome.
Sphere: Related ContentMeasuring Success
April 16, 2008
So what does it mean to measure? Webster’s says to measure is “the act or process of ascertaining the extent, dimensions, or quantity of something; any standard of comparison, estimation, or judgment.”
One of the first lessons I learned during my career at P&G was “You get what you measure!” In other words, unless you’re tracking the activities that drive your business, you won’t know how you’re doing. Is the business healthy or not? In LÛCRUM’s Delivery Organization we’ve been focused on measuring a several key areas of our business over the last year. I’ll focus on 2 key measures - consultant utilization and engagement health.
Consultant utilization is key to our business health since our revenue is dependent on billable hours with a client. If we’re not billing hours, we’re simply not making money. Like any business, if we’re not making money, we won’t be in business very long. Not surprising, our goal is for all hours spent with a client to be billable. While there are times it’s necessary to provide ‘free’ effort, we obviously want to monitor that and ensure it’s in check. We also measure how many hours our consultants spend ‘selling.’ While selling is primarily a Business Development role, a consultant’s technical and business experience can be valuable in making a successful sales call.
Another area where consultant’s time will be spent is “developing the practice”. It’s important for us as a company to develop as individuals and to contribute to the development of the organization. Our contribution to the company might be working on an internal project or serving on a company committee. But one of coolest things I found when I joined LÛCRUM was the concept of “Geek Speak” and “Brain Brews” - technical and business training offered several times a month at lunch or after the business day. We’re each encouraged to attend as well as present to the organization. Yes, I’ve digressed from the topic of measures, but these sessions are really great!
So back to topic….On a weekly basis, the Senior Management team and the Delivery leadership spend time reviewing the overall utilization as well as drilling down to the portfolio and individual. We’ve learned a lot about how our time is spent and it’s helping drive business decision!
The other key area where I spend my time as the Quality Manager is tracking our engagement health. Key is to monitor the next ‘deliverable’ and through the use of conditional formatted ‘traffic lights’, monitor for those yellow and red light! It’s not rocket science, we’re currently doing this through an excel dashboard but it’s allowing us to see the current engagements in one view and ask ourselves questions about what’s going well or what needs attention.
While I’ve mentioned Senior Management and the Delivery leaders regarding the review of our measures, it important everyone knows and understands our Delivery measures. We recently made the information available to everyone through our Delivery Sharepoint site. This site provides weekly or monthly measure in dashboard format. In addition to utilization and engagement health, we also provide visibility to the revenue vs goal, bench, training, recruiting and years of service.
We’ve come a long way in the last year and the journey of Quality Management continues. Stay tuned…….
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